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Modification of Methods for Identifying Inbred Lines Useful for Improving Parents of Elite Single Crosses 1
Author(s) -
Dudley J. W.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci1987.0011183x002700050024x
Subject(s) - inbred strain , biology , zea mays , allele , dominance (genetics) , genetics , genotype , gene , agronomy
In many hybrid breeding programs, corn ( Zea mays L.) programs for example, a common practice is to cross one inbred parent (e.g., I 1 ) of an elite hybrid (I 1 ✕ I 2 ) to a donor inbred (I w ) and attempt to isolate a new line with improved performance in crosses to I 2 . for I w to be useful as a donor of alleles for improving I 1 ✕ I 2 , I w must contain favorable alleles at loci (class G loci) for which I 1 ✕ I 2 is homozygous unfavorable. A previous method for identifying such lines assumed that the number of loci for which I 1 , I 2 , and I w were all homozygous favorable (class A loci) was equal to the number for which all three lines were homozygous unfavorable (class H loci). In addition, genotypic values of μ, μ, and —μ instead of the more general z + 2μ, z + μ + a μ, and z were assigned to + +, + ‒, and ‒ ‒ genotypes, respectively, where μ is one‐half the difference between homozygotes, a is a measure of degree of dominance, and z is the value of the ‒ ‒ genotype. The previous method was modified to identify donor inbreds without the assumptions that Z = ‒μ and that μ A = μ H . A new set of estimation equations is presented and the effect of relaxing the assumption of complete dominance is described. Based on the new set of equations, I 2 lines would not need to be evaluated if information on class B loci (those for which I 1 and I 2 are + + and I w is ‒‒) is not needed. Use of the new estimators is illustrated by applying them to a set of corn data. Results from the modified method are in closer agreement with expectations based on pedigrees and experience with the lines involved than were results using the original methods.